If you think your family is dysfunctional, meet this one

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, April 13, 2009

If you think your family is dysfunctional, meet the Boodles and feel better.

The Boodles can be found live on stage as Maverick Players kicks off its tenth season of providing comic relief to Midland with "Noodles," its first presentation of the season.

The Boodle family has an adopted homeless man living inside a refrigerator crate in their living room, a hypochondriac daughter, a grandpa who operates a cat house (for felines) and a bachelor son whose girlfriends are scared off the minute they meet his eccentric clan.

Determined to deliver sanity to the household, the son hires a therapist to evaluate his family. But the outcome he hopes for doesn't come, as love and charm triumph his family's idiosyncrasies in the end.

For its size, Midland has a smorgasbord of theater venues, from schools to churches and organizations staging varieties of plays. Over the years Maverick Players has become a personal favorite in local entertainment, and this latest production caused me to walk away thinking about eccentricities found in most families.

The one who thinks everyone else has the problem, as the saying goes, is usually the one with "issues." For example, everyone in my family (but me) is obsessive about everything being spotless and in its place. Some are more obsessed with this than others, but the trait is rampant in my family.

At times I wish this condition would rub off on me.

And so does my monthly housekeeper, who moved away not long ago. There are theories on why she left town. One involves my apartment.

Some come to find humor in their oddities.

A dear out-of-town friend, highly educated and aware of her hypochondria, has learned to cope and together we laugh through the medical charts of life.

The character in "Noodles," who develops symptoms of any disease she reads about, very much reminded me of my friend.

If my friend develops any ailment - real or imagined - she takes to the Internet. Invariably her symptoms expand or worsen the more she learns about what could possibly go wrong. She's not content with standard medical screenings, instead insisting upon the most comprehensive of tests if there is any remote possibility of illness. On the other hand, I'm prone to postpone basic checkups.

Most families have a tech nerd or two, a compulsive collector or pack-rat, and what family would be complete without the rabid sports fan who can't eat a holiday dinner without the game on?

"Noodles" made me smile and fondly think about my own dysfunctional loved ones.

Or am I the one with issues?

Admittedly, that's the safe bet.

Thanks, Maverick Players for all you do for so many to enjoy.

You can take a comical respite from real-life quirks with four final performances of "Noodles," April 16-19. Reservations can be made by calling 522-5225. For a list of future productions, visit www.maverickplayers.org.

## Shanna Sissom is city editor of the Reporter-Telegram. She can be reached at shanna@mrt.com ##